8-week practical course · Tuesday evenings, online · Cohort 01 starts 3 November

Thinking about becoming
a mortgage broker?
Here's how it really works.

You don't need experience, contacts or a finance background to start. You just need someone to show you how deals actually come together, and how people really get hired. That's what these eight weeks are for. They run alongside your Cert IV, taught by a broker who's writing loans this week.

Register your interest → See the 8 weeks

Beginners welcome · Not sure if it's right for you? Email me at james@brokerlab.com.au and I'll tell you honestly.

How it runs8 weeks · live online · Tuesday evenings
What you'll learnLender servicing, deal structuring, complex income, compliance
What you'll leave withA complete deal file, interview prep, employer introductions
Founding cohortStarts 3 Nov · $990 · 12 places

Put simply: the Cert IV gets you accredited. Brokerlab gets you ready for the job, and introduces you to the people who hire.

81%
of new Australian home loans are now written by brokers. A record high.
$5k–$20k
what new brokers typically pay for two years of mandatory mentoring
0
units in the Cert IV that teach you to run a lender servicing calculator
The problem

If it feels like there's a step missing, you're not imagining it.

Almost everyone who comes to us says a version of the same thing: "I've done the study, and I still don't know what I'm doing." That's not your fault. The pathway genuinely has a gap in the middle of it, and this is what it looks like.

Step 01

You start with the Cert IV

Twelve units, mostly online. It gives you the rules, the compliance framework and your accreditation. All of it necessary, and you can't skip it. What it doesn't cover is why the same couple borrows $740k at one lender and $612k at another.

from ~$355
Step 02 · the gap

Then you're on your own

How deals get structured. How to read a servicing calculator. What a clean file looks like. Which role to apply for first, and how anyone gets hired without experience. Nobody hands you this part.

where most people get stuck
Step 03

Then two years of mentoring

Required under MFAA and FBAA rules, and often genuinely valuable. It's also a serious financial commitment, usually made before you know enough to judge whether the one you're offered is any good.

$5,000 – $20,000+
Brokerlab is step two. Eight weeks alongside your Cert IV that teach the things the qualification skips, so you reach step three knowing what you're signing and knowing people who hire.
The course

Eight weeks. Built entirely around real deals.

One live two-hour session each week, plus a recorded deep-dive and a practical exercise on an anonymised deal file that actually settled. Theory only ever shows up in service of a deal.

Week 01

How the industry actually works

Lenders, aggregators, brokerages and ACL holders. Who does what, who pays who, and how brokers really get paid: upfront, trail and clawback.

Week 02

The client journey, end to end

From first enquiry to settlement. Where deals stall, what assessors actually look for, and what "a clean file" means in practice.

Week 03

Servicing fundamentals

Income types, shading, HEM, liabilities, buffer rates and DTI. Hands-on with lender-style calculators until the numbers stop being mysterious.

Week 04

Complex income scenarios

Self-employed financials and add-backs, company and trust structures, rental shading. Why a deal that fails at one lender passes at another.

Week 05

Structuring the deal

LVR and LMI, guarantor structures, first-home buyer schemes, splits, offset versus redraw, and why cross-collateralisation usually hurts your client.

Week 06

Complex & specialist lending

Investment and interest-only, construction, bridging, specialist and low-doc, SMSF basics. Knowing what to write, what to refer, and what to decline.

Week 07

Compliance as a working broker

Best Interests Duty in practice, file notes that survive an audit, responsible lending, VOI and privacy. The version nobody teaches from a textbook.

Week 08

Getting in: your pathway

The honest map of entry routes, choosing an aggregator, reading a mentoring agreement, plus CV work, mock interviews and introductions to hiring brokerages.

The pathway

We don't just train you. We get you in the room.

Most people entering this industry fail at the same point: nobody will hire them without experience, and they can't get experience without being hired. Brokerlab exists to break that loop.

01

Learn the job

Eight weeks of the practical skills a brokerage actually needs on day one.

02

Build a real file

Your capstone is a complete deal file you can put in front of an employer.

03

Prepare properly

CV, mock interview and a clear view of which role to target first, and why.

04

Get introduced

Direct introductions to partner brokerages and aggregator contacts who are hiring.

To be straight with you: we prepare you and we introduce you. We can't guarantee a job, and we'd rather say so than promise something we don't control. What we can promise is that you'll walk into those conversations knowing more than most people with a year in the industry.

Who it's for

Built for people starting from scratch, and people who've been close to it for years.

Career changers

Coming from another industry

You've enrolled in the Cert IV, or you're about to, and you've realised it isn't going to teach you the job. You want to know what you're walking into before you commit two years and a mentoring fee to it.

Skilled migrants

Finance experience from overseas

You've done lending or banking overseas, but Australian credit policy, lenders and compliance are a different world. And every job ad wants "local experience". This is how you get both.

Support staff

Already inside a brokerage

You're a CSM, loan administrator or admin who wants to start writing loans. You know the software; you need the credit thinking, the deal structuring and the confidence to run your own client.

James, founder and lead trainer at Brokerlab
Who runs it

Taught by someone doing the job this week, not someone who did it a decade ago.

"I did the Cert IV. It didn't teach me how to write a loan. Eighteen months in client services and credit analysis did. And almost nobody tells newcomers that's the way in."

James is an accredited mortgage broker with four years in the industry, working inside a Loan Market Chairman's Club brokerage, the network's top performance tier, based in the Northern Rivers and recently merged with a Sydney firm.

He started as a client services manager and credit analyst before writing his own loans, which means he's personally done every job a newcomer is likely to be hired into. Brokerlab is the course he wishes had existed when he started.

4 yrsin the industry
CSM → analyst → brokerthe route he teaches
Chairman's Clubbrokerage experience
Founding cohort

The first intake is small, cheap, and hands-on by design.

Twelve places. Founding price. In exchange, you'll be asked for honest feedback that shapes every cohort after yours.

Cohort 01 · Founding intake

Eight weeks, live, alongside your Cert IV

Starts Tuesday 3 November 2026. Everything you need to walk into a brokerage interview knowing what you're talking about.

  • 8 × live 2-hour sessions, Tuesdays 7:00pm AEDT
  • 8 recorded deep-dive modules, yours to keep
  • Real anonymised deal files and servicing exercises
  • Capstone deal file you can show an employer
  • CV review and mock interview
  • Introductions to hiring brokerages and aggregator contacts
  • Cohort group chat with direct access to James
Cohort 01 dates

Weeks 1 to 7 run Tuesdays from 3 November: 3, 10, 17, 24 Nov and 1, 8, 15 Dec.

Week 8, the pathway and interview week, runs Wednesday 27 January, after the Christmas break. That is deliberate: it puts your interviews and introductions in front of brokerages when they are actually hiring again, and gives you six weeks to finish your capstone deal file properly.

Full price $2,490
$990
founding cohort · payment plan available
Register interest →
Questions

The things people ask before signing up.

Do I still need to do the Cert IV?
Yes, absolutely. The Cert IV (FNS40821) is the legal minimum qualification and Brokerlab is not a replacement for it. We're not a registered training organisation and this course doesn't issue a nationally recognised qualification. Think of it as the practical layer that runs alongside your Cert IV and teaches the parts it doesn't cover.
Will this get me a job?
It will get you prepared, and it will get you introduced. We work with brokerages and aggregator contacts who are actively hiring, and eligible graduates get direct introductions plus interview preparation. What we won't do is guarantee a job. Nobody honestly can, and a course that promises one is telling you what you want to hear.
I'm still working full time. Can I do this?
That's the design. Sessions run in the evenings, everything is recorded, and the weekly exercises take an hour or two. Most people do this alongside a full-time job and their Cert IV study.
Do I need to have started the Cert IV already?
No. Some people do Brokerlab first to work out whether the career is right for them before spending money on the qualification. Others run the two in parallel, which is the most common approach.
I'm on a visa. Can I become a broker in Australia?
Many people do, and finance broking is a recognised skilled occupation here. That said, lender and aggregator accreditation requirements vary and some are tied to residency or work rights, so the employed route (client services or credit support first) is usually the sensible starting point. We can't give migration advice, since that's strictly for registered migration agents, but we can be clear about how the industry hires.
How is this different from a mentoring program?
Mentoring is the mandatory two-year arrangement you enter once you're writing loans, and it's a significant financial commitment. Brokerlab comes before that. Eight weeks, a fraction of the cost, and by the end you'll understand the industry well enough to judge a mentoring agreement properly instead of signing the first one you're offered.
Who actually teaches it?
James, an accredited broker currently writing loans inside a Loan Market Chairman's Club brokerage, who came up through client services and credit analysis. Guest sessions from lender BDMs, client services managers and hiring principals are built into the program.
Register interest

Founding cohort. Starts 3 November. Twelve places.

Tell us where you're at and we'll be in touch with dates, the full curriculum and how to secure a place. No obligation, and we won't spam you.

We'll only use your details to contact you about Brokerlab. Nothing is shared with an employer unless you ask us to. See our privacy policy.